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All Rise...

This review was co-written by the metal plate in Judge Mac McEntire's head.

The Charge

"Every night, when you're sound asleep, something strange happens. Not
only do your eyeballs keep moving even though your eyes are closed, but the
world keeps moving, too. Somewhere, far away, kids you'll never meet are
climbing trees, riding bikes and milking garter snakes, while you're fast
asleep. Maybe that's what bugs my brother Pete. While he's stuck in bed, the
world keeps going on, without him. It's as if millions of kids got a head start
in a race, and Pete never had a chance to catch up."

Opening Statement

The early 1990s saw a great deal of creative and experimental programming at
cable channel Nickelodeon. The Ren & Stimpy Show led the charge,
Doug and Rugrats kicked off their long-running popularity,
Clarissa Explains It All aimed for the young girl audience, and no one
quite knew what to make of Weinerville.

But at 6 p.m. on Sunday nights, the network belonged to two red-headed
brothers, their quirky parents, their otherworldly classmates, and an
unconventional superhero. Now that a few years have gone by, The Adventures
of Pete & Pete is officially a nostalgia item, and its unique brand of
weirdness has arrived on DVD.

Facts of the Case

Pete (Michael C. Maronna, Home
Alone) would like to tell you about his brother, Pete (Danny Tamberelli, Igby Goes Down), and their adventures in
the town of Wellsville. These adventures involve Dad (Hardy Rawls, D.A.R.Y.L.), who owns the local driving range, Mom
(Judy Grafe, Frankenhooker) who
has a metal plate in her head, best friend and possible girlfriend Ellen (Alison
Fanelli), and Artie the Strongest Man in the World (Toby Huss, Beavis and Butt-Head do America),
the town's resident superhero and Younger Pete's personal bodyguard.

It keeps getting stranger from there.

The Evidence

The Adventures of Pete & Pete is not a kids' show. Instead, it's a
show about being a kid.

Take a moment to think about that.

It might sound like the two are the same thing, but there are key
differences between them. When you're still growing up and still learning, a lot
of the world doesn't make sense. Rules are constantly forced on kids, sometimes
for no readily apparent reason. Adult behavior is often strange, as if secrets
are hidden around each corner. Pete and Pete exist in a world filled with
mysteries. Adult conspiracies abound, 10-year-olds can grow beards, and bowling
balls have minds of their own. But these mysteries are not explored or
investigated in any way. Instead, the unknown is accepted as the ordinary. Where
did Little Pete's tattoo come from? How did the bully "Endless Mike"
get his nickname? What the heck's the deal with Artie? None of this is
explained. Being kids, our heroes simply accept these mysteries as a part of
everyday life.

With that in mind, let's take a look at the episodes on this two-disc set,
making up the show's first season:

• "King of the Road" It's vacation time, and no
one vacations better than Dad. But when a rival dad challenges his title, it
leads to a roadside competition of epic proportions.

• "Day of the Dot" Strife hits the school's
award-winning marching band. Ellen is consumed with her new position as the
band's "dot," forcing Big Pete to reevaluate how he feels about
her.

• "The Nightcrawlers" Younger Pete and his
friends make a stand against adult tyranny by refusing the most basic of rules:
bedtime. Will he disrupt the balance of power, or is Mom one step ahead of
him?

• "Range Boy" What is the secret connection
between golfing and bears? Big Pete wants to know, because that's the only thing
that can save him from the embarrassment of having to work at his dad's driving
range after school.

• "Tool and Die" In a series with many mysteries,
this is one of the most mysterious, as Big Pete hopes to rescue Ellen from the
frightening unknown that is shop class.

• "Don't Tread on Pete" Big Pete has less than 30
minutes to cram for a make-it-or-break-it history test in an episode dealing
with leg veins, milk squirting, dodge ball, and more.

• "When Petes Collide" Brotherly love is put to
the test when Dad wants an heir for his prized bowling ball. But there is more
to said ball than it seems.

• "Hard Day's Pete" Little Pete has no favorite
song, until he hears one that blows him away. But with nothing to rely on but
his memory, he does the only thing he can do to recreate the song before it
fades from his mind. He starts a band.

The set also features four Adventures of Pete & Pete specials,
made a year before the series began:

• "Valentine's Day Massacre" Nothing says
"Valentine's Day" like accidentally killing a squid in a freak
discus-throwing accident. In a twisted tale about bullies, secrets, and
slobbering, our heroes help a janitor and a math teacher find love.

• "What We Did on Our Summer Vacation" This
fan-favorite special introduces Mr. Tasty, the world's most secretive ice cream
man. In their attempt to uncover his identity, Big Pete and Ellen end up driving
him out of town. Meanwhile, the younger Pete stands up to an evil lifeguard, and
Dad makes the find of a lifetime at the beach.

• "Apocalypse Pete" Look, it's Steve Buscemi! He
plays Ellen's dad, who ends up in an insane prank war against the Petes' dad.
The ongoing struggle has Little Pete and Dad growing closer together, but it
also has Big Pete and Ellen growing apart. What's a pair of brothers to do?

• "New Year's Pete" With the New Year's right
around the corner, Little Pete finds himself in conflict with a crossing guard.
He also takes over narration duties from his brother for this one.

For a more detailed examination of what makes this series tick, let's take a
look at our cast of characters:

Pete The older brother is our narrator and our main
protagonist. He is often played as one of the more normal characters, but he too
has a skewed perspective on life. He takes a purely scientific approach to
winning Ellen's heart in "Day of the Dot." In "Don't Tread on
Pete," he spends as much time ruminating on the supernatural powers of his
teacher's leg veins as he does cramming for his test. Michael Maronna narrates
each episode with deadly seriousness, so that no matter how ridiculous or absurd
the plot, it's made clear just how high the stakes are for our young heroes.

Pete Much of the series' famed weirdness comes from the
actions of the younger brother. He always seems to have a devious plan in mind,
and he can come up with a scheme to get himself out of any predicament. He also
gives the show its dark side. He's got an insult ready for every occasion,
calling both adults and bullies names such as "blowhole" and
"dillweed." But despite his slightly festering evil, Pete remains
loyal to his brother and his family, and he's not afraid to stand up for himself
or for what he feels is right. It's a nice balance struck by the writers and by
actor Danny Tamberelli. Pete comes across as a kid who'd be fun to hang around
with, as long as you don't cross him.

Dad Mostly played for the usual "Dad" jokes, this
father figure is sometimes a buffoon, sometimes overly competitive, and
sometimes highly sentimental. But he's often the source the writers turn to when
they want jokes not intended for kids. Take, for example, the subtle Freudian
nature of his rivalry with another dad in "King of the Road." The two
men compete to see who can have the larger stack of luggage, or measure success
with extending tire pressure gages, or…okay, so maybe it's not that
subtle. But Dad's various foibles and frustrations show how the series is more
than ordinary kids' fare. Instead of writing for a specific target audience, the
creators just tell the story they want to tell. Sometimes that might mean random
weirdness, but sometimes it means genuine insights into the characters and how
they think.

Mom In any other series, Mom might be considered the boring
character. Aside from the notorious plate, which we'll discuss below, Mom is the
normal one here. Her only job is to keep her family together, and to be there
for Dad and the boys when things get rough. In "Nightcrawlers," she
starts out as the enemy, but then becomes the voice of reason. She's the only
one using any kind of common sense when everyone else is possessed by the
hypnotic power of a sinister bowling ball in "When Petes Collide."
Judy Grafe makes the character genuine, so that when she's called upon to
deliver the episode's moral, she can do it without making it forced or
preachy.

Mom's plate Mom has a metal plate in her head. We never do
learn the full story as to why. But still, the plate is important enough to get
its own credit during the opening titles. The plate can pick up and somehow
broadcast radio signals and police scanner frequencies, and it makes Mom highly
vulnerable to lightning. The plate also demonstrates how the show's creators can
make the most of a low budget. There are no special effects or complicated make
up jobs required for the plate. Instead, we're just told that Mom has a plate.
With only a few lines of dialogue and an X-ray during the opening, the series
achieved one of its signature weirdness for weirdness' sake elements. Note how
in "Nightcrawlers," which features Mom in a key role, the plate is not
discussed at all. And yet we, the audience, know it's there. Unseen and
unmentioned, it still helps the creators bring the bizarre world of Pete
& Pete to life.

Ellen Big Pete's best friend and/or girlfriend—depending
on which episode you're watching—is often played as the smart one of the
bunch. And smart she is, too. She can calculate the location of a missing ice
cream man from hints in photographs, she can build an action figure replica of
her father from scratch, and she can use semaphore to pass messages between two
feuding brothers. But Ellen can be too much of an overachiever sometimes, to the
point of obsession. You'd think that most people would be offended to be told,
"You're a dot," but Ellen gives it a Zen-like approach. She obsesses
over what it truly means to be a dot, to the point where her friendship with
Pete is at risk. In "Tool and Die," there's a remarkable sequence
showing how Ellen's ambitions in shop class have led to pure madness. Ellen is
shown in close-up, with darkness surrounding her face, as she discusses her
fascination with a blowtorch. This fades back and forth between shots of the
torch's flame illuminating the shadows. The scene ends with another dark
close-up of Ellen hidden behind a welder's mask, lit only by the torch. Like the
finest filmmakers, the creators here have used imagery with minimal dialogue not
only to build suspense, but also to depict a character's state of mind.

Artie What can possibly be said about Artie the Strongest Man
in the World? If you're already familiar with Pete & Pete, then you
know Artie. If you've never seen the show, then prepare to be freaked out.
Artie's unflatteringly skinny body is poured into equally unflattering red and
blue spandex. This, combined with his glasses, slicked back hair, and oddball
speech patterns, make him by far the strangest element in an already strange
series. You'd think most kids would run screaming from this guy, but Artie, in
true superhero fashion, proves to be a loyal pal, always there for his young
friends. When he's not saving the day with his awesome strength, Artie perks up
the kids with some upbeat words, or with his manic dancing. Prior to Pete
& Pete, Toby Huss was a performance artist, who wowed the creators with
his manic energy at an "underground theater." One gets the feeling
that Huss isn't acting, but instead the director just put him in front of the
camera and let him go. But Artie brings more to the series than an otherworldly
presence. He adds to the kids' perspective the creators are shooting for.
Evidence dictates that Artie is not Pete's imaginary friend—as many have
speculated—but his role here does fit into the mysterious "kid
logic" that the scripts are built around.

As we can see, there are a number of factors that make the series work,
almost in spite of itself. In the audio commentaries provided here, the creators
outline some of their goals for Pete & Pete, which include themes of
"geek empowerment," kids standing up for their rights, and combining
scientific logic with matters of the heart. All these are best seen in the
season's standout episode, "Day of the Dot." In this world, members of
the marching band are the heroes of the school, instead of some sports team. As
noted above, Ellen must become a dot. For her, it's not something
insignificant—it's the most important role she could have. Big Pete views
his changing feelings for Ellen in a purely scientific way, comparing the two of
them to a hydrogen atom. Meanwhile, Little Pete is stuck on the world's longest
school bus ride. It's up to him, and him alone, to come up with a scheme to both
end the ride and to heal the bus driver's broken heart. These plotlines end in a
satisfying fashion—crowd-pleasing and funny, without getting sappy. It's
strange and silly, but it also has heart.

The creation of the series was just as unusual as the series itself. Pete
& Pete was originally a collection of 60-second shorts designed to
promote the Nickelodeon network. With no instructions other than ending with the
network logo, the creators had free reign to be as weird as they wanted. The
shorts gained a cult following, which led to the 30-minute Valentine's Day
special. This proved popular enough for more specials, and, finally, the series.
There was never a pilot, or pitch meetings, or test screenings, or any of the
usual steps that a series has to take to get on the air. This entire endeavor is
the TV equivalent of low-budget independent cinema, created without focus
groups, product placement, or interference from studio executives. Instead, it
was made by a group of friends armed with nothing but a camera and their dreams.
It's the same inventive "do-or-die" spirit that gave us small-scale
fan favorites like Clerks, El Mariachi, or Primer. Only this project was for made for
television. Unless the entertainment industry goes through some radical changes
in the future, it's unlikely that we'll ever see a series like this again.

Because Pete & Pete's first season had a budget of about five
bucks, the picture quality is slightly lacking. Greens and reds are bright
enough to sting your retinas, but blues and yellows are soft and washed out.
Fans, however, will argue that the colors contribute to the overall
"look" of the show. There are other flaws, though, such as an orange
stripe across the screen at one point, that had me instinctively reaching for my
old VHS remote to fiddle with the tracking button. The audio is serviceable, but
not exactly DTS quality. Still, all dialogue and music come through loud and
clear.

Extras include audio commentaries from co-creators Will McRobb and Chris
Viscardi and director Katherine Dieckmann, on two episodes and one of the
specials. These include anecdotes from the set, and other fond reminisces of the
series as a whole. But if you're hoping for an answer to "where did they
come up with these crazy ideas," you won't find it here. Two of the
original 60-second shorts are included. It's fascinating to see the series in
its infancy, and one wishes even more of these could have been added. The final
extra is a collection of songs from the band Polaris, who appear in the opening
credit sequence and who provided most of the show's music.

The way the discs are set up, it's like traveling back through time. You
begin watching the first season, with its slower dreamlike pace and rich
character development. Then you see the specials, in which the actors are
younger, and the plots and humor fly by at rapid fire speeds as creators try to
fill each one with as much story as possible. Finally, the shorts are,
naturally, even more fast-paced, and the actors look even younger. Seeing the
genesis of the series in reverse shows how the creators learned as they went
along. They started with almost no experience but a lot of enthusiasm, and
ultimately created a weekly series made up of smart, well-told stories, which
are also very funny and wonderfully weird.

The Rebuttal Witnesses

I'm a nice enough guy that I don't mind a trailer that plays when you first
put the disc in your machine, even if it can't be skipped with your remote's
menu button. But four unskippable trailers? And they're repeated on both discs?
That's taking it too far. The offenders are Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate
Events, The Spongebob
Squarepants Movie, Spongebob Squarepants: The Complete Second Season
and The Brady Bunch: Season One. Also, at this point in the game,
shouldn't every DVD at least have English subtitles?

Closing Statement

Where are these actors today? Why isn't Michael Maronna getting the types of
parts that usually go to John Cusack? Why isn't Alison Fanelli getting the parts
that usually go to Liv Tyler or Maggie Gyllenhaal? For a while, Danny Tamberelli
enjoyed some C-level celebrity status as "that wacky guy" on
Nickelodeon shows like All That and Figure It Out, so why isn't he
now getting parts that usually go to Seann William Scott or Ashton Kutcher? Who
knows, he might actually make them tolerable.

Pete & Pete is now officially a nostalgia piece, but here's
hoping the people who created it, both in front of the camera and behind, will
keep working and give us more great stories wrapped in a surreal setting. Not to
mention releasing the remaining seasons (and the rest of the shorts) on DVD.

The Verdict

Not guilty, blowhole!

Give us your feedback!

Did we give The Adventures Of Pete And Pete: Season One a fair trial? yes / no

What's "fair"? Whether positive or negative, our reviews should be unbiased, informative, and critique the material on its own merits.